Female-Musician.com's blog highlights women featured within the Female Musicians' Directory and the more well-known or accomplished female musicians of the past and present as well as female musician-related news and other news and musicians we feel should have a place within the pages.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Cruise Ship Performer Horror Story!

Written by an Anonymous Cruise Ship Performer who wants to stay "anonymous" for obvious reasons.

PERSONAL NOTE: This experience does not represent ALL experiences of entertainers working on this or other other cruise lines. See my further note below this post.

Doing a write-up/review about working on cruise ships is a double-edged sword. On one hand, I'd love to share the majority of horror stories encountered as a cruise ship performer; crappy supervisors that drive you like sled dogs, having to sell out and do sub-standard songs, only to be shit on and ignored, and even dragged into disciplinary meetings, based on a jerk passenger.On the other hand; an influx of US musicians, based on a good review, would only put 'me' out of work. In conclusion, there are 'no' good jobs for musicians on ships; only a job, period. The longer you stay, the more you get kicked around AND seniority does not count out here. No unions, no respect, nothing. Deal with it or move on.

American Cruise Ship Performers - Not Welcome?

Most of the crew members are non-American, and they hate you, a US employee. And you'll be expected/required to do many more hours of free, non-paid work. Showband players are 'not only' drowned out by 'tracks' in the show, but have to backup passengers singing!, Ala Carnival Superstars. In other words, unglorified and insulting, demoralizing live Karoake backup.

If you are called into a disciplinary meeting, you will not win, no matter what the circumstances. The passenger or crew member complaint always wins, and supers will gang up on you. Since a newer CEO took over for CCL, crew members have encountered tremendous cuts; bad food, cabins that are borderline uncomfortable with the 'reduction' of air conditioning, all to save a few bucks on gas to power the ships. You'll be told that you'll work fair hours on your first contract, but count on those hours being more, and for no extra pay. Plus, hours of redundant safety training, guest management training, etc, etc.

You better be a good game player, and you better have thick-skinned body armor, to work for this company. If you don't like it, there are dozens of others stateside, waiting to take your job. Tipping? Forget it. With my job position, I have to tip my cabin steward, the crew mess, the staff mess, etc, but 'I' cannot put out a tip jar!

Sub-standard Treatment and Conditions?

I have to 'lockup' all of my bathroom stuff, meds, or anything that can be tampered with, before my cabin steward cleans my cabin. Remember that out of 900 crew members, you are one of maybe 6 American crew members. You are not liked as an American. I've had cabin stewards put my toothbrush inside themselves, in their anal region, then put them back in my bathroom. You want to get violently ill? Come work here. I've had deodorant tempered with, toothpaste, anything that can purpously tampered with, to force you to miss work, and possibly get fired. I've been sick many times on ships.

Other misc situations? I've gone through numerous hurricanes; Ike, Irene, etc. The front office wants to save fuel money, so we go 'through' them. I've been in 40 foot high seas, and even sent self-shot video of hurricane Ike, while on the ship, to CNN I Report, which actually aired on CNN. It's miserable rocking and sometimes terrifying. I was on a ship a while back, that had a screw (Propeller shaft,) break, but the captain drove it back home anyway, at 1/4 speed, through 15 ft. seas, just to meet a deadline. If we would have lost the 'other' propeller, we would have been drifting, powerless, in raging seas. I've been on ships that were hit by 10 story tall rogue waves, which almost overturned the ship. I've sat on a ship, that was anchored in a bay, riding out a hurricane, for 2 days. In conclusion, I don't recommend this job to anyone, unless you are desperate. I challenge any and all to persons to challenge me on this information submitted, and I'll remain anonymous, in case I have to do, yet one more miserable contract...End of Post Written by Anonymous.MY PERSONAL NOTE: According to another entertainer I personally know who has gone out on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and had great experiences, never go onto a cruise ship as a "crew member". Always go on as a "guest", and this type of experience may be avoided.CLICK HERE to talk about your experiences as a cruise ship musician. You can comment anonymously if you'd like. You're also welcome to comment inside this post.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Three Phenomenal Female Instrumentalists

Written by Guest Blogger Nani C.

Music is a driving factor in how we identify ourselves as people. Music defines our culture and community, and what we identify with can say a lot about who we are as people. While big pop musicians like Britney Spears, Pink, or Katy Perry get a ton of attention, many listeners look for females that focus more on their adept understanding of instruments over their vocals and outrageous stage shows.

Dame Evelyn Glennie

Dame Evelyn Glennie is one of the most interesting and important female instrumentalists of our time. As a jack of all trades as it were in music, she is able to play a wide variety of music. She performs with a number of orchestras and contemporary musicians and gives over 100 concerts per year, four months of which are spent in the US. She also takes part in master classes and music in schools performances. She is often seen playing percussion, though she is also well known for playing the Great Highland Bagpipes. One of the more interesting things about Glennie is the fact that she has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12. While musicians in the past have succeeded this way, how does she perform with an orchestra and stay in line with them? She often plays barefoot and feels the music through her feet. She is an amazing instrumentalist that has had an amazing career. If you ever get the chance, try to catch her live at some point.

Clora Bryant

Clora Bryant is a well-respected jazz “Trumpetiste” that does more than just play. She is also known for her singing and lectures, but her start came from her jazz career behind the trumpet. She has had a long and beautiful career working with people like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Billy Daniels and Billy Williams. She was also the first American female jazz musician to play in the Soviet Union, at the request of Mikhail Gorbachev.

Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn

For those that have a sweet spot for the stringed instruments, few women are as well respected as Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn currently. She became famous in the UK in her childhood, appearing on televisions shows involving classical music and conservative style. She made her professional debut at the age of 10 in 1998 at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Fesitval in Germany followed by her concerto debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London the same year. She is also the youngest soloist to record Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos. As she aged and entered her later teens she started to break out of the classical style and changed to a more flashy, sexy style in music videos donning stylish outfits. In 1995, she released a pop album called The Violin Player followed two years later by an appearance with Janet Jackson on the album The Velvet Rope playing solo in the title track. While collaborations have brought her fame, she has also released albums of her own compositions such as the 1997 album China Girl: The Classical Album 2.

Nani C. is a writer for HowDoIBe.com. If you are interested in a career as a musician, take a look at this site to help you learn what you need to do.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

By Dylan Stableford, Yahoo! News | The Lookout –Three members ofPussy Riot--a Russian punk band and feminist collective that mocked Russian president Vladamir Putin during a "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral--have been found guilty of hooliganism and sentenced to two years in jail.

Judge Marina Syrova announced the verdict from a district court in central Moscow, about two miles from the Christ the Saviour Cathedral where the guerrilla group performed its "flash" stunt.

"The girls' actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church's rules," Syrova said.

The band members--Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30--were arrested on March 3, several weeks after the performance, and charged with "hooliganism." They've been in jail ever since.

Supporters outside the courthouse chanted "Shame!" as news of the verdict spread.

"They are in jail because it is Putin's personal revenge," Alexei Navalny, one of them, told Reuters. "This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin."

The trial drew enormous international interest, sparking catcalls from international free-speech advocates and spawning dozens of protests. There were several impromptu protests in Moscow, London, Paris, Barcelona and elsewhere on Friday, and numerous reports of arrests.

Madonna, Bjork, Paul McCartney and Courtney Love were among a long list of musicians to come out in support of Pussy Riot, calling on the Russian government to set the band members free. Last week in Berlin, more than 400 people joined a protest led by electro-singer Peaches.

"In one of the most extravagant displays," the Associated Press said, "Reykjavik Mayor Jon Gnarr rode through the streets of the Icelandic capital in a Gay Pride parade ... dressed like a band member--wearing a bright pink dress and matching balaclava--while lip-synching to one of Pussy Riot's songs."

What started as "a punk-infused political prank," London's Independent said, "has rapidly snowballed into one of the most notorious court cases in post-Soviet Russian history."

But the 10-member Pussy Riot, inspired by the American "riot grrrl" movement and bands like Bikini Kill, vowed more protest performances.

Pussy Riot's stunt at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church, was a response, they said, to Patriarch Kirill's public support of Putin in the build-up to Russia's presidential election. Putin won a third term as president in March.

"Holy Mother, send Putin packing!" the group sang.

The Guardian called the trial, which began on July 30, "worse than Soviet era."

"By the end of the first week of Pussy Riot's trial," the Guardian's Miriam Elder wrote last week, "everyone in the shabby Moscow courthouse was tired. Guards, armed with submachine guns, grabbed journalists and threw them out of the room at will. The judge, perched in front of a shabby Russian flag, refused to look at the defense. And the police dog--a 100 [pound] black Rottweiler--no longer sat in the corner she had occupied since the start of Russia's trial of the year, but barked and foamed at the mouth as if she were in search of blood."

Lawyers for the women complained during the trial that the trio were being starved and tortured in prison. Two threatened to go on a hunger strike after they were initially jailed.

"Their treatment has caused deep disquiet among many Russians, who feel the women are--to coin a phrase from the 1967 trial of members of the Rolling Stones--butterflies being broken on a wheel," the BBC's Daniel Sandford wrote.

Syrova was subjected to unspecified threats during the trial, Russian authorities announced on Thursday--assigning bodyguards to protect her before and after she announced the verdict.

Several Russian pop stars, though, questioned the outpouring of support for Pussy Riot.

"What is so great about Pussy Riot that all these international stars support them?" Russian singer Valeria wrote on her website, according to Reuters. "They must be saying this because someone ordered them to."

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

How To Create Your Own Page On Female-Musician.com

Female-Musician.com has been my passion for more than 3 years now, and I've enjoyed every minute of creating, developing and promoting it! I've learned so much myself in just the research I've done to build it and am still learning because of it.

I absolutely LOVE music! However, I also love the work I do related to the website. To me, although it takes a lot to build a site like Female-Musician.com and take care of everything related to it, it's not really work, it is a true passion.

One of my goals for the site has been to give the ability to any female musician who has performance video and wants to have an additional outlet for self-promotion, to make their own "mini-website" within Female-Musician.com!

It really makes me happy to say that, now, every woman who plays an instrument and vocalists, have that capability!

We're ranking very high in the search engines and are on the first pages (sometimes more than once!) based on keywords that help make it easy to find you. That's the whole point! Female-Musician.com is THE place that makes sense to find you if someone is looking for anything related to ANY female musician!

The Value Of Having Your Own Page On Female-Musician.com

I've personally seen one of the pages of a musician who created a full-page listing within the site go to the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing within one week when we searched her by name, so it definitely works to get you visibility, whether by your name, or whether by a general look-up for female musicians.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

LEARN HOW TO PROMOTE YOURSELF

Did you all know that as musicians, we are "in business" for ourselves? Or, at least, we should modify our mindsets to think of ourselves and talents as we would think of a valuable product - booking agents, managers, producers and others do, don't they?

When "sharks" see a meal, and they're hungry, they want to eat!

Well, if you know enough NOT to go where the sharks hang out and are able to cross from point A to point Z without having to let the sharks eat you, why not?

Knowledge IS power!

Just as we promote www.Female-Musician.com through social media, blogs, etc, we are also "promoting" all the female musicians within it, which gives all the women who have pages inside the site more visibility.

Just do a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo for "female musician" or "famous female musicians" (among many other keywords), and you'll find that Female-Musician.com comes up on the first pages of all of them!

That means, when you have a page or a listing inside the website, and people are looking for ladies who know how to play instruments, whether they're famous or less well-known, YOU are going to come up on the first page of all these search engines! YOU WILL be found!

Promoting Yourself Is A Lot Like Promoting ANY Product or Service

As a musician myself, I realize that the same way we promote our website, is the same way I should be promoting myself, my music and my band!

Female-Musician.com and all the services we have through it are all to help YOU be EMPOWERED. If you want to learn more about how to promote yourself, sign up for our newsletter to the right on this page, and you will get 7 FREE ebooks that will help guide you into ways you may not have thought of - from building a list to marketing your video and music and even how to create a successful marketing plan.

Don't let the "sharks" have their way with you! You've got the power!

Bookmark and share our website. Use our free tools, information, products and paid promotional servicesto help you in any avenue in your career you'd like to go.

To get you started building your mailing list so you can keep your fans up on all the latest, here's a completely free, no-catch auto-responder system that you can add to your Facebook Fan Page or anywhere else that will allow you to add html coding:

Remember, if you don't already have a page on our website, and you want to be included within it, CLICK HERE to fill out form to create your own page for FREE!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tired Of Waiting For Your Video To "Go Viral?"

Tired of waiting for YouTube views?

We all know the power of video and sites like "YouTube" can't be denied!

Being a musician myself, I realize that as a musician, having our videos go viral can mean success in a lot of ways for us. It can also make us feel great to know that our video was so good that people just naturally wanted to see it.

But what if you don't want to wait for it to "go viral" to get it out there? It would be great to get real people to your hear your music and see your videos by the hundreds and thousands in days instead of weeks and months, right?

I always thought when you posted a video, you'd have to wait for the hits to come in slowly and mount up over time. Well, I recently found out that I could actually "buy" views to my videos! But why would I want to do that? Isn't it cooler to let people just kind of "happen" upon your music or hear about it by word of mouth because the music itself is attracting them? Wouldn't that be the honest way to make it happen?

Did You Know You Could Actually Help Your Video Go Viral?

Well, I've come to realize that it's really all about promotion. And self-promotion is becoming increasingly important in handling our own business as a musician. Believe it or not, we are inbusiness for ourselves!

Thankfully, it has become easier to promote ourselves now through the power of the internet. You WANT the word to get out about what you can offer to the world, and you want to do it as quickly as possible! If you can buy views to what you have to offer, why not? Why not be excited to let the world know about the great thing you've got going?

Buying views to your video causes excitement. It shows people that other people are taking a look at what what you have to offer and gives everything a kind of "jumpstart" for the video. It's also useful in helping your video rise in the search engine rankings making it show up on the first pages when people look for it. Plus, you'll gain subscribers, and you'll get sales of your music and merchandise!

I've hired people through Fiverr.com (whom, by the way, I've received great service through) for this service until I found out about how to buy YouTube views through a service that gets real people to your videos. I found out by chance that I could go to them without worrying about whether I'm being scammed by being told that real people were coming to my video when it really wasn't...it was a script or just a fake view through a "bot"!

Helping Your Video To Go Viral Through Real Human Views Is Known As Promotion

You also don't have to worry about being sited by YouTube for the views you get because you are receiving real views from people, and this is a true promotional tool. I bought the service, and have been very pleased with the results.

Looking at music as a business-minded person who thinks of him or herself as being in business for themselves makes it so that one naturally realizes that getting exposure for anything you want to bring attention to is a huge part of being successful. Just make sure you also have music or a product that appeals to an audience, and promote, promote, PROMOTE!